Bar spinners
Heavy rotating blades are a type of heavy rotating weapon. First appearing in Robot Wars: The Third Wars in the form of Hammertron, they gained widespread recognition during the appearance of Fluffy in Robot Wars: The Fifth Wars. To date, the most successful robot to use a heavy rotating blade is Series 9 champion Carbide. Other successful robots with this weapon type include Battle of the Stars co-champion Arena Cleaner and Series 9 third- and fourth-place finishers Ironside3 and Aftershock, whose bar spinner was interchangeable with a vertical spinning disc. Definition Heavy rotating blades can exist in any shape or form, such as bars, spiked/bladed axes, hammers or triangles. A weapon falls into this category if it is shaped like a propeller blade or a bar rather than a disc. Just as flywheels are considered the larger and heavier versions of cutting discs, heavy rotating blades are the larger, heavier and more powerful versions of Lawnmower blades. Heavy rotating blades are very versatile weapons. Not only are their designs open to variation, but they can also be mounted horizontally or vertically, incorporated into an invertible design, and designed for either piercing or hammering other robots. Heavy rotating blades in the form of spinning bars are often also called bar spinners. Advantages and Disadvantages Advantages *Because heavy rotating blades have a heavier mass behind the weapon strike than the teeth on flywheels, the blows from the weapon have a far more concussive effect. They are more capable of causing instant immobilisations or deal greater damage with single blows than flywheels, which often require several successive attacks in order to become effective. They are also adept at removing loose parts from robots- whilst Hypno-Disc's weapon bent Pussycat's blade inwards during their single clash in the Fourth Wars, a single blow from Fluffy was capable of breaking the weapon, along with a castor, clean off in the Fifth Wars. Arena Cleaner's weapon was also capable of tearing away a wheel from The Cat during the course of Battle of the Stars. *Because the weight of a rotating blade is distributed in a smaller but denser weapon than a disc, the attack zone can be greater whilst actually increasing damage output. Compare the weapons of IG-88 and Vader for example. *When mounted horizontally, robots can incorporate them into invertible designs. Many successful wielders of this weapon are invertible, such as Carbide, Fluffy and Arena Cleaner. **Vertical heavy rotating blades can also be incorporated into invertible designs, as seen with Revolution 2. *Depending on the weapon's size and power, the gyroscopic forces of a horizontal rotating blade can prevent the robot from being completely flipped over when the weapon spins at full speed. Carbide demonstrated this characteristic during two of its fights against Apollo in the Series 8 Grand Final, and in its Series 9 Grand Final battle against Eruption. Disadvantages *As with other heavy rotating weapons, they require a lot of kinetic energy which drains batteries quickly and sometimes causes the weapon motors and/or clutches to malfunction. Zorro was defeated in its Series 7 first round battle after its excessive energy consumption drained its batteries of essential power to its weapon and srimech. Fluffy and Carbide's blades were also susceptible to failure on various occasions in Series 8, with the latter's Grand Final defeat to Apollo being partly blamed on its weapon breaking. *As with other spinning weapons, the recoil from a heavy rotating blade can also adversely affect the robot's reliability. Fluffy was notorious for breaking down as a result of its attacks on other competitors throughout its appearances, such as its Series 5 Heat Final battle against Pussycat. *Furthermore, said recoil can also cause the robot to be launched in a different direction or even airborne, as shown in most of Carbide's battles during Series 8 and 9. *As one of the heaviest weapons, very few robots with this weapon have a fallback in the event that the weapon breaks. Carbide struggled to respond to TR2 and Apollo's attacks in Series 8 once its weapon failed to work, and Das Gepack was able to recover ground once Fluffy's weapon broke. *Given that heavy rotating blades are prohibited from most live events, it is very expensive to create one when chances of qualification are limited. Some robots like Ironside3 were built at short notice after being informed of qualification and as such, there was no time to implement a fully operational srimech. *Unlike discs, which tear through obstructing objects due to the minimal surface area to be impacted, heavy rotating blades are easier to stop if a robot is heavy enough to absorb the impact. Fluffy's weapon was halted by Das Gepack in the UK v Germany final, and was unable to start spinning again. List of robots with Heavy rotating blades Robots are listed alphabetically. Robots which are not heavyweight entries are listed with a green background. Category:Weapon Types Category:Robots with heavy rotating blades